Is Governor McDaddy for Real?

Everybody agrees that our new Governor Gavin Newsom's adorable 2 year old Dutch stole the show on Monday when he charged the stage while daddy was giving his inaugural address.  But as Mayor McHottie becomes Governor McDaddy, two things nag at me as to whether Gavin Newsom is for real:

1.  Daddy Credentials. While I have no doubt that Marcos Breton in the Sacramento Bee today is correct that Gavin Newsom is a loving father (Tiny pat on Newsom's back), a quote in Monday's story on the Newsom family's visit to the Sacramento Train Museum raises some question as to how well Gavin knows his toddler: 

“This (event) was literally designed for Dutch,” [Newsom] told reporters. “But he’s still looking for Thomas the train. If there’s one thing I can contribute to Sacramento, maybe it’s getting a Thomas train exhibit for 2-year-olds.”

See how sad Thomas the Tank Engine Looks?

It may seem like a small thing but anyone who has ever spent the tiniest time with a Thomas-oriented child knows immediately that Thomas's name is "Thomas the Tank Engine" not "Thomas the Train."  Our children were into Thomas approximately twenty years ago and my husband and I immediately noticed the discrepancy.   How much time can he be spending with Dutch if he doesn't know Thomas's name? [Note:  Eight years as Lieutenant Governor and a cakewalk gubernatorial election should have provided ample time with children]

2.  Support for Single Payer Health Care.  Governor Newsom campaigned on single payer health care yet the folks with health care chops he has appointed are more of the incrementalist, Obama/Clinton mode.  No health care insider in Sacramento is going to tell the media the truth about these appointments because they need to curry favor with the new administration.  I spent twenty years in and out of health care policy in DC and Sacramento but am out of the business so I can talk:  

• Newsom's Cabinet Secretary: Ana Matosantos--as Brown's Budget Director she was the hatchet person on health care costs and she was good at it.  Any expansion of health care coverage was generally met with an eye roll.  Even if directed to implement single payer, she is temperamentally conservative and cautious--would undermine at every turn.

• Chief of Staff: Ann O'Leary--Ann's career has been spent implementing and advancing incremental health care expansions for the Clintons (first Children's Health Insurance Program for Bill Clinton and then as health care point person for Hillary's Presidential 2016 presidential bid).  While she may be a perfectly good chief of staff, it is difficult to imagine that she could or would advance single payer health care.

• Office of Strategic Engagement: Daniel Zingale--Daniel is former Senior Vice President of the California Endowment, the largest foundation doling out health care dollars in the state.  He is brilliant.  He is bold.  He is creative.  He is a good hire.  And he is also deeply entwined in California healthcare politics and money which depend upon undermining single payer.  If anyone could make single payer happen if he wanted, it would be Daniel, but I don't see it.

This is a subject for another piece, but folks who support Medicare for All -- or statewide government provided universal health insurance commonly called "single payer"--need to understand that health care is the single fastest growing industry in the state and the country.  It consumes a massive amount of the GDP and all of big business is intertwined with its success.  This also includes traditionally progressive unions most importantly the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) which represents the workers at Kaiser Permanente.  Nothing gets through the Democratically controlled California Legislature that the SEIU is strongly against.  SEIU carries the water for Kaiser Permanente.  Kaiser Permanente is opposed to any government health insurance unless they are the insurance.   So to have any shot at all at advancing the agenda he campaigned on, Newsom needs to have appointed someone with vision and commitment to universal health insurance.  It looks otherwise.

So far, Governor McDaddy is striking out on tank engines and health care advisors.  Stay tuned.